


Checkmate

by lucifersmistress



Category: Falsettos - Lapine/Finn
Genre: Alternate Universe - College/University, Alternate Universe - Everyone Lives/Nobody Dies, F/F, F/M, Internalized Homophobia, M/M, Marvin is a Mess (Falsettos), Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Unplanned Pregnancy, and they were ROOMMATES, marvin has middle child syndrome, omg they were roommates
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-07-04
Updated: 2020-07-04
Packaged: 2021-03-05 03:22:02
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 4,662
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25067605
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lucifersmistress/pseuds/lucifersmistress
Summary: When he came to his room, Marvin nearly stumbled over his own feet. The door was wide open, allowing the music playing inside to be heard from the hallway, and laying in the middle of the floor was who he could only assume was Whizzer Brown. What a startling first impression he made.
Relationships: Dr. Charlotte/Cordelia (Falsettos), Marvin/Trina (Falsettos), Trina/Mendel Weisenbachfeld, Whizzer Brown/Marvin
Comments: 15
Kudos: 24





	1. Of Mars and Maths

**Author's Note:**

> So, initially I wrote this and hated it a lot, so after deleting all 12k words I decided to expand the little AU I made into this mess.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Marvin starts college.

Marvin knew everything about this college. From the fact that it was first made an establishment in April 1935, to the fact that there are some underground tunnels which though not haunted (because ghosts don’t exist) are definitely spooky. 

He knew all this, despite this being his first time to ever set foot on campus, let alone the vast dormitories. From the pictures online you wouldn’t imagine the dormitories to be so large – and Marvin was unaware from pictures alone that the domineering towers either side of the main dormitory buildings only housed many more students. Considering the area of the buildings, and the average area of a room, in addition to the need of common space and bathrooms when compared to the capacity of the college – there was more rooms than necessary. Of course, Marvin deducted this simply from looking at the buildings alone – perhaps every room wasn’t as small as he presumed. And if some rooms were singles, whilst others were double it would complicate the equation he had quickly formulated in his head. 

Ever since he was little, Marvin used maths to understand the world – adding, subtracting, multiplying, all to make sense of everything around him. The numbers calmed him down and helped him think clearly and calmly. Right now, on an unfamiliar campus and surrounded by unfamiliar buildings he needed math more than anything. 

He continued to do impossible calculations in his head whilst approaching a bulletin on the wall of the main building – it detailed all students, their roommates (if they had one), and what rooms they were in. Marvin had arrived at campus much earlier than anyone else, so it was fairly empty giving him plenty opportunity to not only look for his own name, but also his friends, without being surrounded by a crowd of other curious freshmen. 

First, he saw Trina’s name – she had a single room in spite of the extra cost because her parents were aware of the unisex dormitories and would loathe for their daughter to sleep in a room with a man. 

Next was Charlotte, they were friends from high school since his parents insisted that he made friends with their next-door neighbour, not expecting for it to spark a friendship that had lasted for over a decade. She was in a room housing four people. Marvin’s insides churned at the idea of being housed with four people. Four! He would go insane, additionally it made his equation even more complicated. He vowed to begin working out the capacity of the dorms, in comparison to the population of students the moment he set foot in his dorm. Which, from the looks of the bulletin he would be sharing with a ‘Whizzer Brown.’

Marvin didn’t give much thought to ‘Whizzer’ besides the fact that his name was completely bizarre, and that his parents had questionable naming skills. But he wasn’t one to judge given the deplorable alliteration in his family’s names. His mother and father shared the same initials and decided to pass this on to their three children, naming them Mark, Martha and Marvin. Thinking about it now, Marvin still couldn’t believe that the hospital staff allowed his parents to give a child a name beginning with ‘Mar’ a third time. They didn’t even have an affinity for the planet ‘Mars’ or the ‘Mars Bar’, there was no reasonable (though was a chocolate bar really reasonable) reason for why they chose mar. 

Quickly becoming distracted from maths and Mars when he came to his room, Marvin nearly stumbled over his own feet. The door was wide open, allowing the music playing inside to be heard from the hallway, and laying in the middle of the floor was who he could only assume was Whizzer Brown. What a startling first impression he made. 

Whizzer looked like one of those models straight out of a magazine, except he had not been edited profusely – he simply looked perfect. Marvin immediately regretted the shabby jeans, red hoodie combo he had chosen to wear. It seemed too casual in comparison to Whizzers tight jeans and shirt. 

Marvin didn’t stop to think that maybe Whizzer was dressed too formal for college, and rather preferred to nit-pick at his own appearance. Even his shoes (ratty old trainers) were shabby. It wasn’t that he couldn’t afford new ones, but he didn’t want to be one of those posh snobs that could and would treat money like it grew on trees. 

Unknown to Marvin, who was still trying to justify his casual clothing to himself, Whizzer had sat up and was now staring at the boy in his hallway. He wasn’t speaking and it was beginning to get a bit unsettling, a few minutes had passed by now and yet the boy was persistent in his silence. Even to the point where he entered the room and started to unpack his bag without a ‘hello’.

At this point Whizzer wasn’t trying to be discreet with his stares, and Marvin was being anything but discreet in the way he outright ignored Whizzer. It became a game, to see who would crack first – Marvin, who had now finished packing, or Whizzer, who despite his back beginning to ache was still sat on the floor. 

‘’Have you eaten yet?’’ It was Marvin who broke the silence, it wasn’t the ‘hello’ or introduction Whizzer expected, but it was better than not talking. Whizzer couldn’t imagine having a roommate for a year who would not talk him. 

‘’No.’’   
Marvin was so quiet after his reply that Whizzer thought for a moment the silence was back – when he looked at him however his eyebrows were scrunched together as if trying to solve long division. ‘’I, uh, I saw this pizza place driving here – we’ll have to drive but, I don’t know, it’ll be worth it getting to know each other and stuff since we’ll be here for a year.’’

Marvin stared at Whizzer as he berated himself in his head – he was so stupid. Who asks their roommate (who they don’t even know) to go get pizza? He probably doesn’t even like pizza, and now he just seemed weird. 

Immediately regretting the offer, Marvin began to retract it when Whizzer interrupted him – grabbing a jacket and walking out of the still open door, ‘’Come on then, I want pizza.’’ Marvin jumped up from his bed – running after Whizzer. 

Whizzer wasn’t as bad as Marvin first thought. He was somewhat bearable, and if it wasn’t for his affinity for pineapple on pizza (Marvin couldn’t stand the stuff), and insulting his car (she was old, rusty, and belonged in a scrapyard, but Marvin loved her) then Whizzer truly would be the perfect roommate. Well, not perfect. Nobody’s perfect – but Whizzer was damn near close. He even offered to teach Marvin how to use the washing machines and like appliances. Marvin really did not want to be taught the ins and outs of a college washing machine by someone who had probably never used them – but the offer wasn’t all around unappealing. 

He learnt as the first week went by (surprisingly fast) that Whizzer was easy to be around as long as they weren’t sitting in a stifling silence. Music was always playing whenever Whizzer was in their room, even whilst he was studying. The one-time Marvin dared to ask Whizzer to turn off the music he thought he would be kicked out. It wasn’t that he didn’t like the music – but sometimes (especially when doing maths) Marvin preferred silence. 

It reached the point where he thought he would go insane, so he took to studying in Trina’s room. She had arrived two days after Marvin, and it would be an understatement to say Marvin was relieved. Trina had been his best-friend throughout high school, and she always knew what to do. She wasn’t studying the same courses as him (maths, accounting, business and statistics) but she gave him shelter from the constant noise that was Whizzer Brown. 

Then, when Charlotte finally turned up shortly after Trina, she joined their little study group in Trina’s room daily. But Marvin couldn’t stay in Trina’s room forever, after all she was very strict on curfew and he couldn’t go running to her whenever he wished to ignore his roommate. 

On the days he did stay in his dorm, which were few and far between, Whizzer tended to not be there. Marvin didn’t question this, though he did wonder where Whizzer was, it wasn’t his highest priority of the moment. After two weeks of college he had accumulated quite an alarming amount of washing – and Whizzer still hadn’t taught him how to use a washing machine. He could always suffer the embarrassment of asking Charlotte or Trina, but Whizzer had made him the offer two weeks before. It felt wrong to get someone else to teach him. It felt like a betrayal, and Marvin was too much of a bad actor to attempt not knowing how to use a washing machine so Whizzer could teach him after the girls did. 

Not that it mattered, because Whizzer was barely here. And the short times that he was in the dorm he was sleeping, showering and studying. Meaning there was no time to even talk to Marvin, let alone teach him. Marvin wouldn’t call himself a nosy person, he preferred the term curious, and he was getting curious about Whizzers whereabouts. They had been at school for all of two weeks, two days and four hours (roughly) and it was shocking to Marvin that his roommate had found a place to be all of the time. Of course, Marvin was trying to avoid Whizzer for the first week, but it was a bit weird that Whizzer was avoiding him now. At least, to Marvin it seemed like Whizzer was avoiding him. What else could he be doing? 

It didn’t cross his mind that Whizzer wasn’t like Marvin, and that maybe Whizzer was hanging out with his own friends without the added self-serving benefit of avoiding someone for no reason. Because Marvin had no reason to avoid Whizzer, and then have the audacity to be shocked when Whizzer wasn’t around. 

That was why Marvin was surprised to walk into their dorm and come face to face with Whizzer. Not just Whizzer. Whizzer and a girl? They were both sat on Whizzer’s bed and laughing and – holy shit. Marvin rushed back into the corridor and closed the door, but it was too late, Whizzer had looked up and seen him. 

Marvin always knew that Whizzer was attractive and was bound to have girls hanging off of him everywhere, but God. A girlfriend already, after two weeks? And they were in their dorm room together. On the same bed! Marvin couldn’t, wouldn’t imagine what was going on in there. Instead he would briskly walk out the corridor, pretending nothing had happened, he had not walked into his roommate god-forbid about to have sex, and he would hide in a café for four hours. 

His plans were swiftly intercepted by Whizzer, who did not know what he was doing, but decided to run after Marvin. The latter didn’t get very far, his mind still trying to comprehend exactly what he just walked into. 

Marvin could hear Whizzer shouting his name, but he really did not want to disrupt what was going on, plus he didn’t want whatever explanation Whizzer was going to give him. Again, common sense abandoned Marvin as he didn’t stop to consider the possibility that much like Trina and Charlotte, the blonde girl was simply Whizzers friend. There wasn’t any explanation for why Marvin was so worked up. Even Marvin himself was confused by his reaction. Many a times he had walked in on Mark with a girl, and Whizzer was no different.

He managed to get out of the building before Whizzer caught up – out of breath and surprisingly not a hair out of place. ‘’Marvin, what the hell man, why are you running away?’’ 

He stumbled over his words – desperately trying to find an explanation that didn’t make him seem psychotic or worse. How do you explain being so worked up about your roommate having a girl over? He could always lie – but Marvin was always such a horrible liar, always trying to get his siblings in trouble and failing every time. 

The girl was following Whizzer, and Marvin wasn’t surprised to find out that she was beautiful, the complete opposite of Whizzer. Honey blonde curling hair, trailing down her back with daisies wrapped in braids. Like a faerie, Marvin thought absentmindedly. 

‘’I-I’m sorry for interrupting you and your, uh, your girlfriend.’’ Both Whizzer and the honey blonde girl erupted into a fit of giggles, drawing in the attention of everyone on the quad. Marvin’s face brightened to a more vibrant red; it seemed as though every face had turned to them, wondering what exactly was so funny. Marvin was beginning to wonder himself. 

‘’We’re just friends Marvin, Jesus.’’ 

The position they were in (wrapped around each other with a closeness Marvin hadn’t even seen in his parents), Marvin thought otherwise. Nevertheless, he felt the colour drain from his face. Of course. Of course. He was overreacting, being dramatic again and it only led to him looking like a prat in front of the entire school. All because he had a stupid, histrionic outburst over nothing, just Whizzer and a girl. He truly didn’t understand why he acted like he did, a fool if he was being modest, and he most certainly didn’t want to think about why.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> so i decided to edit the way i was chaptering this because my chapters were far too short for my liking


	2. I Ask Him Why He Bites His Nails

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Basically, Marvin's an idiot.

Washing machines were more difficult than Marvin first thought. It was much more complicated than just simply throwing clothes into the drum and hoping for the best, according to Whizzer, Marvin wasn’t getting the first step right.   
Whizzer sat beside him, partially hidden by a pile of unwashed clothes with the face of a broken man. Offering to help Marvin with what he originally believed to be a painfully simple task was a mistake, and Marvin was far too stubborn a man to acknowledge he needed help. No, he wouldn’t concede to being beaten by a washing machine, to admit to such would be ludicrous, and he would never live it down. 

Ever since the fiasco of high school, Marvin swore to himself he would try not to provide anyone with any ammo to poke fun at him. And what a splendid job he did at that, already causing a ruckus on the main quad and being a hairbreadth away from a breakdown in the public laundrette. All over a washing machine that looked as though it were taunting him. He made to kick it and regretted the decision almost immediately. The shock made him keel over as flares of pain travelled up his leg, he inspected the washing machine hoping to find he had done even a small amount of damage, but it seemed Marvin’s tantrum hadn’t left even a scratch on the machines surface. ‘’You fucking idiot.’’

A grin was on Whizzer’s face, one that Marvin would have admired if it hadn’t been for the pain in his foot and the anger rolling off of him in waves. Of course, he was a fucking idiot, because only a fucking idiot couldn’t use a washing machine in college or kicked metal. Whizzer wasn’t trying to hide his glee at Marvin’s mistake, it served him right for refusing proper help.

He would have had his clothes washed ten minutes ago if Whizzer hadn’t been adamant on separating clothes into whites, darks, delicates, and every other feasible group, and now as a result of Whizzer’s stupid washing method (because Marvin could not take the blame entirely on himself) his foot had a burning pain that was beginning to bring a tear to his eyes. Collecting all his unwashed clothes back into a rubbish bag was difficult when trying not to put too much pressure on one foot. Rather than help Marvin, who was clearly struggling, Whizzer stayed sat on the floor, occasionally raising a prominent eyebrow whenever Marvin cursed or stamped in an unkempt and futile anger. Occasionally he would stand in the middle of the room, count to ten, then continue rampaging about the room, every now and then stopping to glare at the guilty washing machine. 

''I'm just going to throw all this in with Trina's stuff.'' Whizzer nodded his head, despite Marvin already having left the room, and not having a clue who Trina was. 

It would be foolish and naïve to say Marvin was an easy person to be around, especially when he was on one. His usually stubborn and aggravating attitude would become more than annoyance, he got the harsh glint in his eyes (the same he got before attempting to assault the washing machine) and his words became lined with venom. After a few weeks, Whizzer had grown used to his roommates conceited actions, his childlike tantrums. Though he knew that after stomping about the laundrette, Marvin would sit on what had happened all day, his mood growing fouler and Whizzer could only hope he was asleep by the time he got back to their room. 

Naturally, nothing worked out for Whizzer, ever. 

For a moment Whizzer believed he had accidently stepped into the Blackpool Illuminations, every light was on his room, a shocking change from the darkness outside. Marvin was sat on his bed, staring down at his feet as if there was a mystery about them, he was trying to crack. Whizzer noted his shoes were still on, the same shabby old trainers that deserved to get burnt alongside Marvin’s shitty car, and the rest of his equally horrible wardrobe. ‘’I hurt myself.’’ 

Whizzer wanted to care, he really did, Marvin was his friend, and if he was saying he was hurt it clearly mattered. But, after spending hours walking about town trying to avoid his roommate and slowly developing an awful headache which made his head seem like the inside of a drum, Whizzer really wasn’t up to playing doctor. Least of all to the cause of his headache. He just wanted to sleep, and hopefully ignore the fact that he had a lecture first thing in the morning. 

Marvin and his incredible ability to complain had different ideas however, making it abundantly clear that Whizzer would not be going to sleep anytime soon, at least not unless he helped Marvin. ‘’What’s up?’’

‘’My foot, it hurts.’’ Whizzer fought the urge to roll his eyes, instead pinching Marvin on the arm. 

’’There, problem solved, now your arm hurts too, better?’’ Whizzer would have left it; however, Marvin didn’t jump at the opportunity to hurt Whizzer back, a shocking change in Marvin’s behaviour. ‘’Well, can you take the shoe off so I can have a look?’’ 

‘’No,’’ Marvin said, his eyes not once leaving the shoes in question.

This time Whizzer didn’t fight the urge to roll his eyes, it was like dealing with a child, a very stubborn, very immature child. ‘’Why not?’’  
Explaining that if his foot really was properly hurt, even just severely bruised, he couldn’t look at it without fear of passing out or feeling horrifically nauseous was a lot harder than originally thought. Especially without sounding like some sort of coward. He stammered around his answer, trying to phrase it as manly as possible. With straightened shoulders, head held higher and chin jutted out he painted the perfect picture of nonchalance, as he desperately tried to justify his fear of being injured. ‘’Marvin you don’t have to look, but unless you stop complaining, I will.’’ 

Giving into what people wanted wasn’t one of Marvin’s many talents (and he would assure everyone, he had many) but he had no choice.   
Several minutes later, and a lot of pained grunts, both (unnecessarily tight) shoe and sock were removed to reveal the source of Marvin’s complaints. His big toe was swollen and a horrible purple colour similar to a plum. ‘’Holy shit Marv, how hard did you kick that washing machine?’’ The man in question blatantly refused to look down, finding the ceiling incredibly entertaining, muttering ‘don’t know, don’t care’ every time Whizzer would say anything. 

‘’Just call Charlotte,’’ Marvin said whilst unlocking his phone and handing it to Whizzer, eyes still trained on the ceiling. 

Charlotte appeared five minutes later, not looking at all like she had been asleep (which realistically she should have), and a tight-lipped, professional smile, if Whizzer hadn’t of known she was a student he would have assumed Charlotte was a doctor already, with her air of finality and professionalism. She was a comforting presence. 

One look at Marvin and her expression cracked into a fond smile, a big toothy grin that looked out of place on the professional woman Whizzer had just seen. Charlotte held a travel-sized first aid kit in Marvin’s eyeline, quickly getting to work on her friend.

Staring at Whizzer had become Marvin’s new favourite hobby, he could do it all the time (as long as Whizzer didn’t notice). It became a habit every time Whizzer entered a room Marvin found his eyes drawn to him – like a magnet. It was hard not to stare at Whizzer Brown, his ostentatious clothing tended to give him all types of attention. Both good and bad. 

Right now, Whizzer was sat across their room, biting his nails down to their cuticle in a fashion so unlike Whizzer that Marvin would be concerned had he not been transfixed by Whizzer’s mouth. It reminded why Marvin had took upon studying in Trina’s room, at least she wasn’t such a massive distraction. It was driving him crazy, even though watching anyone else chew on their nails was gag inducing. Marvin searched high and low for a reason why but came up blank every time. 

However, being roommates with such a notorious pretty boy had its drawbacks, like the girls asking Marvin for Whizzers number, or asking for him to pass on a note. Every note given to him ended up in the nearest bin. Many a times, Marvin had been placed in the unfortunate predicament of assuming these girls were initially into him, and every time without fail he would dislike Whizzer a little bit more as these girls gave him a pitiful look and mentioned his ‘gorgeous roommate’. 

Once in a blue moon, a man would approach Marvin, tentatively, speaking in a very hushed voice, eyes downcast, asking to thank his roommate for them, or give Whizzer their number. Every time Marvin stomach churned, because he knew that there was no doubt these men wanted more from Whizzer than a friendly chat. He made doubly sure to bin those notes, or casually forget their numbers. And if these men came up to him, he would give them scathing looks, warning them not to approach him about this again.

The girls, he could handle, Marvin imagined they gave him a wonderful reputation, after all only him and they knew that they weren’t really interested in him. 

The men, however, were a different kettle of fish. Though in reality not many people were fussed about whom Marvin associated himself with, he had convinced himself that every time one of these men spoke to him, people were staring, whispering, spreading rumours.   
So, in order to put all of this to a stop once and for all, Marvin resolved to confront Whizzer about this – both the women and men. He hoped to whatever God was listening that the men were a funny accident, or even Marvin jumping to conclusions (again). Because if it wasn’t an accident, and Whizzer was like these men, then Marvin wouldn’t know what to do. He loathed to think about his annoyingly attractive roommate taking people into their room when Marvin was out. It sent a shudder down his spine.

Being an outspoken person (read: arrogant) Marvin had very little issue expressing his thoughts. With ease he could slip into a rant about something as simple as breakfast, so his difficulty whilst attempting to talk to Whizzer threw him off his rhythm. The nail biting had ended as Whizzer had neared the point where his fingertips would bleed and was now chewing at his lip obsessively and Marvin couldn’t form words. 

His body was ready for a fight, facing Whizzer defiantly, but his mouth wouldn’t cooperate, except to stammer unintelligibly. Closing his eyes and counting to ten, Marvin attempted to clear his mind, but when he opened his eyes, he was met with Whizzer staring at him curiously. Great, now he couldn’t get out of this if he wanted to. He sighed once, and Whizzer leaned in closer with his eyebrow raised. Marvin could’ve sworn that he had stopped breathing. He was so close that Marvin had to place his hands out to prevent Whizzer from getting any nearer. Where Marvin’s’ fists rested on Whizzer’s chest, he could feel the heat coming off Whizzer, a heat so enticing that he opened his palms, so he could better feel both the heat and Whizzer’s heartbeat. 

Using the steady thrum of Whizzer’s heart to calm him down, Marvin slowly breathed steadily again, following the rise and fall of Whizzer’s chest; the whole time Whizzer’s eyes did not leave Marvin. 

‘’I have an issue,’’ he stuttered his way through the sentence, embarrassment bringing a red tinge to his cheeks. Marvin was sure he was sweating now; he could almost feel it on him. Still he didn’t move, nor did Whizzer. He wasn’t sure when it became a game, a competition of who would move first, but Marvin would not lose this one. Losing was simply not an option, even if that meant he would sweat and stammer his way through his argument like a fool. 

It wasn’t really an argument, not yet, but Marvin’s convoluted perception of Whizzer believed that Whizzer would make an argument out of this, after all they had made a competition out of staring. In response, Whizzer raised his eyebrow again in a way that was so infuriating to Marvin, he could not explain why or how for the life of him but the movement, especially so close to him made him see red. If possible, smoke would be coming out of his ears as a result of his unchecked fury. 

Since childhood Marvin had never been good at keeping his anger in check, he was old enough and wise enough to know what he was doing was wrong, and even now as he stared at Whizzer, formulating different scathing responses; a voice in the back of his head was telling him it was wrong. 

But that voice was drowned out by the screaming of his frustration. His frustration found that little voice, bagged and bricked it and threw it to the bottom of a river. 

His hands were no longer on Whizzers chest, the comfort from it soon lost, instead they were thrown in the air as Marvin went on a rampage about the parade of women asking for his roommate, throughout the entire rant Whizzer’s expression didn’t change. It remained in the ‘I’m superior to you because I’m not entertaining this stupid argument’ look, that if anything spurred Marvin on.

Marvin hadn’t planned to mention the men but seeing Whizzer so clearly unaffected was beginning to get on his nerves, he didn’t mention it in the loud and rowdy manner he had before. He said the word men as you would in a crowded room, not an empty dorm room. Nevertheless, he carried on in mutters, the moment he said the fatal m-word, Whizzer’s eyes narrowed, just a fraction, but Marvin basked in the reaction. 

‘’I don’t know what that is about, I don’t want to know what that is about, but stop it now.’’ Confident he had won that one, Marvin swivelled back to his stats work, his equivalent of being in a restaurant and storming out.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> the chapter title is from the song 'whizzer going down',, also it's not important to know, but when writing whizzer and marvin i always picture stephen borgadus and chip zein.


End file.
